update page, January
2001 - please click here
for the original appeal
page, on line on 26th May
1999

STREET CHILDREN IN GALATI, ROMANIA

There are around 200
street children in
Galati, in South East
Romania, many of whom
come from poor families
that cannot give them
enough food and
clothing. And many more
who were raised in
orphanages and whose
parents have abandoned
them.

Betesda is a charitable foundation, working with street children and
poor families from Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Over the
last 18 months we have been able to help many more children, with 32
kids now in the boys' house and a flat rented for six girls who were
formerly living on the streets.

In May 2001 the lease for the flat expires, and we are urgently
looking to raise $9000 to allow us to buy and renovate a flat for the
girls. Any help towards this would be very much appreciated.

Update, 8th June 2001 - our thanks go to Hans & Erika Kraft from Marburg, Germany, for kindly forwarding the necessary money to buy this flat, so that now it is almost remodeled, repaired and ready to welcome the girls. Thank you so much .....

If you would like to sponsor a child at the "My Family" home on a
long-term basis, you will be helping him or her to stay at the home and
leave behind the memories of past experiences. The cost to keep each
child at the home is $20 per week, to include all related expenses.

To help children of poor families who might otherwise be at risk of
becoming street children, i.e. by providing required clothing, shoes,
food, and school supplies, costs $20 per month per child.

The new day care centre was finished in
December 2000, and now every day 20-30
street children come there, having a warm
meal, a shower, school, and clean clothes
etc.

Where possible we help the streetchild to
return to his family, or to find someone
that will take him in - or try to find a place for him at Betesda or
another children's home.

Four days each week
now, we go to the
children on the
streets - we bring
food and play games.
We show these
children (usually
about 20) that we are
not ashamed to meet
them where they are.

The Foundation is setting up a Micro-Farm project to help us generate
financial income to maintain existing and planned projects. Please click
here to find out how you can help us.

The Betesda Foundation is also committed to helping the state school in the
village of Girgiulesti, Republic of Moldova - we go to Girgiulesti village four
times a week and last year 200 children from the school came to our camp,
we hope the same numbers will come again this year.

The cost for a child to spend a week at the camp is $20 - they pay $8 but
need help for the other $12, maybe there are people who will like to help.

We would value your support for our work - the possibilities of helping
the
many street children and alleviating the extreme poverty here are very
limited without financial help from others.